I totally agree I look at it the same way. Facebook in a sense has no product, technically they do with messenger and payemnts and what have you but ultimately their product is people like you and I adding content which brings other people there.

Most social media platforms have no product, their product is the content we produce and with the exception of Youtube/Adsense none of them give back at all to the creators. I think Twitter had tried to make a play into video offering something like a 70% revenue split, I applied htey never took me on and I dont' think they were too successful with it.

Anyhow, I agree essentially Steemit is like a Facebook but instead of Mark Zuckerberg keeping all the profits from advertisers we all get a revenue share in it, almost like a co-op grocery store where all the employees are owners kinda deal.

I agree, I think having some unobtrusive ads would be cool, could be used to offer bounties or do fun contests. Steemit I believe does have a tee shirt and mug shop so it's not as if they are opposed to making money. I'd love to see ads if it benefited the community or benefited the platform